


supernova.

by solthes



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: ??? kinda, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends, Fluff, M/M, Reincarnation, Temporary Character Death, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:02:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25843267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solthes/pseuds/solthes
Summary: The boy with the pepper and salt hair tastes of light and ashes.When he dies, will he burst into flames like a supernova, or will he fade out into nothingness?
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	supernova.

_ Act 1: Mortals and stars _

Keiji, the goddess of stars. 

Everyone knows nothing good comes out of bonding with mortals. They crumble like flimsy foundations, combust into ashes, leaving a trail of shattered pieces in their shadows.

Keiji’s stupid.

From up above the Earth, he spends his free time swinging his legs over the boundary as he watches them go about their lives like tiny worker ants that are barely out of reach. He’s always so close to touching them, but he always retracts his hands in the end. It’s always the same.

He can’t interact with them because  _ Keiji, you’re not responsible for them, do your job and care for the stars _ , but he doesn’t care. The stars aren’t in any need of immediate care, and the prettiness grows bland after centuries of staring at their glow. 

The others know they would never be able to stop Keiji. The moment he breaks through the mental barrier and touches the human world, the moment the colours paint his skin, he would never be able to forget the ecstasy it brings. 

  
Earth has always shone brighter than their small little world up in the skies. 

They murmur in hopes of stopping Keiji from the same heartbreak they went through.

_ Keiji, forget it. They have short lives, it’s meaningless. _

_ Don’t hurt yourself like this. _

_ We can’t stop you.  _

Keiji is a stupid god. He knows that, but he ignores it. 

He spends years after years looking at a particular island. They speak in weird tongues and dress elegantly for events. They have strange festivals to celebrate seasons and have shrines for their gods.

He wonders if there’s a shrine down there for him. 

He tiptoes on the edge of the boundary, staring hesitantly at the empty space that separates him from his dreams. Would the stars be alright without him? As much as he finds them boring, he made every one of them with his bare hands. They’re his very reason for existence. He loves them all dearly. 

He thinks of the festivals and the weird but pretty dresses people don.

His eyes harden with determination as he balances a foot above the space.

The stars would be fine without him for a few years. 

He leaps over the boundary and falls through the skies. 

A sorrowful tune echoes in pitiful mourning. 

_______________________________

_ Act 2: Galaxies fill the wonder of his eyes _

“Hey! I’ve never seen you here before? Where are you from?”

Golden eyes. Salt and pepper hair. A boy with a grin that shines brighter than the stars that Keiji nurtures. 

He takes the form of a 7 or 8 year old boy. He’s a bit shorter than he expected and everything looms over him, but he’s okay with that. A sea of dark curls decorate his head and sways with every movement he makes (he kinda likes it but it gets annoying). 

He opens and closes his mouth. Can he even speak the tongue that the boy is speaking in? His mouth feels sandy and he tries to make out a word.

“Hi?” The golden eyes lighten up in response to Keiji’s answer.

He tries again. “I’m from... I don’t know. The skies? I think so. Somewhere far away from here.” He cringes at how squeaky his voice sounds. 

The other kid leans forward until pepper hair meets dark curls. “The skies? I wanna go there one day! Do you think I can go there too?” 

“Maybe? Who are you?”

The other kid suddenly leans back and presses a fist to his chest. “I’m Bokuto Koutarou, and I’m gonna be an ace!”

Ace. Was that a title?

Keiji cocks an eyebrow. “Ace..?”

Koutarou nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! I’m gonna be the best ace anyone has ever seen! Wanna be my partner?”

Keiji feels like he’s being thrown into a whirlpool repeatedly (he went through that once after he stumbled into the water deities’ experiment. It wasn’t fun.) The foreign words clatter his brain and it feels clogged. 

He nods his head. 

“What’s your name?” Koutarou gives him a toothy smile. (He’s missing a front tooth, that’s cute.)

“Keiji.”

“Just Keiji?”

“Mhm.” 

“We’re gonna be best friends!” 

Koutarou extends a hand out to Keiji in anticipation. Keiji grabs it and is pulled towards a field of grass with a weird pole-like object sitting near the edge of it. The field is devoid of any other life sans the two of them. The sun hangs high and threateningly in the sky and Keiji can feel the sweat starting to form on his forehead. He silently curses the sun god and blames him for the heat. 

  
He wonders if it’s the gods trying to get Keiji to return. 

As they get closer, he notes that the poles have criss-crosses between them that supposedly act as a border between two sides. (“It’s a net, Keiji!”)

It reminds Keiji of the boundary between the skies and Earth. 

Koutarou digs through the grass as Keiji awkwardly stands over his shoulder. Was he supposed to do something? Help him?

Koutarou lets out a cry of victory as he twirls a round object between his hands. 

“I found it!” He exclaims and whoops in excitement. “Kuroo will kill me if I lose his volleyball!” 

Keiji nods. He doesn’t know who this ‘Kuroo’ person is, but now he has a name for the round object.

Volleyball. It has a nice ring to it. 

Keiji points over to where they came from. “Was that the reason why you were there?” He asks curiously. Koutarou sheepishly nods and continues tossing the ball around. 

“Yeah! I was trying to serve but it went soooooo far that I lost sight of it!” He grumbles, but brightens up a moment later. “Well, I found it anyway, so it’s all good!”

Keiji cocks his head. Couldn’t people just... teleport their stuff to them? 

“Koutarou-san, why don’t you just teleport the volleyball to you?” Koutarou shuts his eyes and scrunches his eyebrows. The ball falls to the ground as he slaps his hands against his head and stays still for a minute.

Keiji watches the human boy focus on something with immense concentration, judging by the way he makes a deep humming sound and furrows his eyebrows. 

He scoots closer to the boy and waves a hand in front of his shut eyes. Koutarou’s eyes suddenly blink open and Keiji jerks back slightly in shock.

“What were you doing?” Keiji raises his eyebrow in confusion as he watches Koutarou kick the grass dejectedly.

He crosses his arms frustratingly. “I tried to teleport the volleyball I lost a week ago to me, but it didn’t work! Now I have to get a new one...” He grumbles as he picks up the abandoned volleyball. 

“Maybe teleportation doesn’t work for everyone?” 

Koutarou brightens up and nods his head. “Yeah! That must be it!” Keiji feels a pull at the edge of his lips and he tries not to laugh. 

It was really endearing to see his mood improve so easily. Human emotions were so fascinating. 

Suddenly, the ball flies towards Keiji and his spirit (?) nearly flies out of his human body. “Let’s play! You can be the setter and I’ll be the ace!” Koutarou jumps up and down in excitement, his hair swaying with the movement. He whistles innocently and looks away when Keiji shoots him a death glare. 

Keiji examines the ball and spins it on his palm. “How do I become a setter?” 

“You just toss the ball!” Koutarou forcefully pushes his hands above his head and slightly away from his chest, mimicking a tossing action. “Like that!” 

Keiji nods seriously and tries to mimic the action. He turns the ball and stares warily at it. His sea-green eyes flicker hesitantly between the ball and Koutarou, who is eagerly giving him encouragement in the form of yelling advice at him.

He takes a deep breath and throws the ball outwards like what Koutarou did. Upwards and away from him. The ball swings up in an arc and Keiji’s eyes follow it as it drops on the ground a distance away. Koutarou cheers and runs to retrieve the ball. 

“Like that?” 

Koutarou bobs his head and lifts the ball above his head like a trophy “Yeah! You’re an amazing setter, Keiji!” He beams. 

Keiji feels his face heat up and he glares at his shoes in embarrassment. “That wasn’t really anything...” 

Koutarou shakes his head. “No way! That was amazing!” He continues to celebrate Keiji’s every other toss, even if some are too short and some are too long. 

As the sun starts to slowly fall and Keiji’s creations start to fill the skies, he continues to listen to the human boy with sparkles in his eyes blabber on about how they are going to be the best ace-and-setter duo in the entire world. 

Keiji realises that he wants to spend more time with the boy who held the mysteries of the world in his eyes, whose voice sounded of lullabies and melodies, forming a symphony of tunes and tones that were indescribable.

He feels his heart swell with fondness as he listens to the boy that he’s only met for a day. 

A human boy and a goddess cross paths on a summer day at the field of grass, and serendipity and their fates intertwine, shaping into something new. 

_______________________________

_ Act 3: Stellar Collision  _

_ The coming together of two stars that occurs once every 10,000 years. A rare occurrence.  _

Keiji spends his days with Koutarou, even as summer ends and schools reopen. 

Keiji realises pleasantly that his physical form grows with Koutarou. 

Seasons pass, the grass at the field wilts and grows, the poles of the net grow rustier, and they both find a way to still spend time with each other everyday. It’s mostly for playing volleyball, but they occasionally go to the arcades and malls together. 

Keiji can’t enroll at a school without an actual home and an address, so he tells Koutarou he’s being homeschooled to avoid questions. (“You’re so lucky! I’m too lazy to wake up so early every morning..”)

He eventually meets Kuroo (the one with a bad bed-hair and Koutarou’s sneaky sidekick) and Kenma (“So you’re the mysterious Keiji that Bokuto keeps gushing about.” “Kenma!”) and they play volleyball together once in a while, but it’s usually just him and Koutarou. 

Keiji returns to the skies at night, when Koutarou has to go home and Keiji has to make sure his stars are still properly maintained. He does his job as fast as he can, and prefers to spend more time on Earth wandering around the area. Earth is a really beautiful planet. 

The older gods sigh and shake their head at him, but he ignores the remarks they make behind his back. He’s spent centuries staring wistfully at Earth, he isn’t going to waste his time caring about them. 

Sometimes, he spends overnights on Earth with Koutarou, lying on the soft grass in the backyard of Koutarou’s house as they count the stars together after a long day of playing volleyball. He always gives Keiji his school jacket to rest his head on even if he tries to reject it and Keiji always feels extra fuzzy inside. 

Keiji points out the different constellations and names every star that’s visible to them. He joins the stars with his fingers and explains the origins of their names. Koutarou is always impressed (He’s always easily impressed by everything that Keiji does) and Keiji feels a surge of pride in his chest everytime. 

In those times, Keiji remembers how vast the universe is, and he forgets that the world doesn’t only consist of him, Koutarou, and the stars that litter the open sky. 

On a winter day when they’re both bundled up in multiple layers of clothes (Keiji doesn’t really feel the cold, but he likes the scent of the scarf that Koutarou lent him), Koutarou suggests going to the nearby shrine. 

The once blooming trees along the roads are now empty and naked, the birds that hummed throughout summer and spring have migrated to a warmer place, and the snow covers the stairway to the shrine. 

“Hurry up, Keiji! You’re so slow!” Koutarou waves from the top of the stairs as Keiji slowly strolls towards him, admiring the scenery around him. Keiji lets out a small puff of laughter and watches as the cold air appears and vanishes in front of him within a second. 

He quickens his climbing pace. “Not everyone is as fit as you, Koutarou.” Koutarou sticks out his tongue at him and crosses his arms, pretending to look grumpy. 

“I was just excited to visit the shrine, I haven’t been to one with you before!” 

Keiji has been secretly putting off all of Koutarou’s previous suggestions to visit the shrine. He didn’t want to pray to someone that he personally knew, especially knowing that they were currently very disappointed in him for coming down to Earth. 

“Which god’s shrine is this?” Keiji asks curiously as he finally meets up with Koutarou and they start walking towards the shrine. 

“I don’t know, it’s been too long since I came here…” Koutarou shuts his eyes tightly as he tries to remember the god they were visiting. 

Keiji lets out a small giggle as he watches Koutarou’s exaggerated actions. “Well, I’m sure we’ll find out when we get closer to it.” He doesn’t admit that he’s secretly scared that it’ll be the shrine of a god that he personally knows and recognises, and that he’ll have to spend the entire journey trying to hide his face from embarrassment and fear. 

As they continue walking, the shrine starts to come into sight. He spots the vermillion red torii gate standing in front of the sanctuary first. It isn’t a big shrine, just a small area for the locals and tourists to visit during festivals and events. It looks as thought it’s been recently cleaned, with decorations hanging neatly from the top of it. Two dim lamps flank the small structure, giving just enough light to find the way to it. The trees surround the shrine and tower over it, as if it is a guardian watching over its child. 

Koutarou grabs his hand. “Let’s go!” He runs forward, dragging Keiji along. 

“Slow down, I’m not as energetic as you!” Keiji pants as he tries to follow Koutarou’s pace.

“You’ll be fine!” He grins in reply to Keiji’s complaints and they slowly come to a stop in front of the gate. 

Koutarou lets go of Keiji’s hands to wander towards the shrine. Keiji stops before the gate, hesitantly wondering if he would be chastised for it when he returns to the skies. Taking a deep breath, he steps through the gate, silently hoping that it isn’t the shrine of a god that he recognises. 

When he reaches Koutarou, he sees that his head is tipped downwards, his palms pressed together as he pays his respect to the god of the shrine they’re visiting. Keiji mimics Koutarou and they stay like that for a few seconds before Koutarou’s head shoots back up and his hands fall to his side.

Keiji eyes the shrine curiously, trying to look for a name. “Which god is this shrine for?”

Koutarou’s eyes shine with excitement. “It’s for the goddess of the stars! It’s a small shrine, but I used to come here a lot as a child! I love this place!” 

Keiji freezes and his thoughts come crashing down. 

He never knew that he had a shrine, much less a frequent visitor. 

“That’s...” Keiji can’t muster a word to describe what he’s feeling. 

“I know! The shrine isn’t big, but it’s really pretty! It’s so nice and quiet here too!” 

Keiji feels his heart speeding up as Koutarou continues rambling on about the shrine and how amazing it is. 

He knows that Koutarou doesn’t know that Keiji is the goddess of the stars, but Keiji wants to tell him so badly in this instance. 

“I heard the goddess of the stars is really pretty too! I hope I get to meet them one day...” Koutarou frowns a little but brightens up almost immediately. “Well, you and this shrine and volleyball are good enough for me!” 

“You’re being embarrassing, stop it.” Keiji looks away as his face starts to heat up even in the cold winter.

“I’m telling the truth!” Koutarou shoots back proudly. 

Keiji’s heart feels warm and melted, as if they were in the hot summer heat with cicadas and birds instead of the bare winter. He feels all weird and tingly inside and he wants to scream and reveal all his secrets to Koutarou. His brain is filled with a cacophony of music and buzzes and he can feel the adrenaline running through his blood as Koutarou’s gushing about the goddess of stars fades in and out of his ears. 

_______________________________

_ Act 4: Supernova _

_ A luminous stellar explosion caused by a dying star.  _

_ You’re so stupid. _

Fate was never nice to gods who defied their roles, and Keiji was no exception.

Everything passed by in a flash, yet it seemed as if time stood still.

They were supposed to go meet Kenma and Kuroo after playing volleyball in the spring. The flowers were blooming, the birds were returning, and Koutarou had just entered Fukurodani Academy to play volleyball.

They were walking down the pavement, sun-kissed skin brushing against each other, so near yet so far. There was nobody to disturb their peace. Just a teenage boy, a play-pretend god, and their roughed-up volleyball. 

“A picture-worthy afternoon,” Keiji points out to Koutarou as they made their way to find the Nekoma duo. 

Koutarou laughs, “Every picture is worthy if you’re in it!”

Keiji does not manage to decipher what Koutarou means before the world came crashing down around them. 

A loud bang. Screams echoing, bouncing off the walls and attacking Keiji’s eardrums as he’s shoved to the side by Koutarou’s rough hands. He hears rubber screeches and he sees a car flailing towards them. He stares numbly, and everything turns into static as he’s forced to watch as Koutarou gets flung against the brick wall. His limp body falls flat against the ground and he stays there as blood oozes slowly from his head. 

Keiji has never seen Koutarou so still before, not even when he was asleep. He could never stay still for long.

Keiji slowly crawls over to Koutarou’s limp body. He needs to check on Koutarou. 

When he reaches Koutarou, he lightly shakes him. “Hey, Kou. Kou, wake up.” Koutarou stirs a little, and Keiji’s heart perks up with hope. 

“Koutarou. You’re gonna be fine.” He can already hear the faint ringing of sirens coming from a distance. Koutarou is going to be fine. 

Koutarou mumbles something that Keiji can’t catch. He cocks his head. “Koutarou, can you repeat that?” Keiji moves closer to him, fingers combing through the salt-and-pepper hair, now slightly stained with dry blood. 

He jumps slightly when Koutarou suddenly grips Keiji’s shoulders. “Keiji?” Koutarou’s eyes blink open. The usual light in those golden irises looks dull, as if a painter added clouds to his eyes to mask the sun. 

His eyes wander around lazily before finally focusing on Keiji. Keiji’s heart painfully stutters when he notices Koutarou’s shallow and ragged gasps of air.

“Keiji...You’re my favourite goddess.” Keiji’s breath hitches in his throat as he stares confusedly at Koutarou.    
  
“What do you mean?” Keiji manages out, eyes never daring to even blink in fear that Koutarou will disappear. 

Koutarou’s eyes cloud over for a second before focusing on Keiji again. “You’re so beautiful, just like a goddess.” Keiji’s crying, and he doesn’t want to believe anything.

Keiji cries. “Stop talking, save your breath. None of that is important now.” Keiji’s never begged for anything before, but at that single moment, he begs all the gods that he knows of to save Koutarou. 

He prays for the ambulance to come faster, for the sirens to gradually sound louder as they come nearer. He prays for them to be able to play volleyball again, for them to be able to meet up with Kenma and Kuroo. He wants to sit under his creations with Koutarou and link up the constellations again. He wants to tell Koutarou who he truly is. 

Koutarou’s eyelids flutter slightly and he grasps on his last few breaths. 

“I love you to the stars and back, Keiji.” 

Keiji watches mutely as Koutarou’s eyes cloud over permanently and the grip on his arm loosens and falls limply to the ground. 

Then, a long and pitiful wail. 

If the other bystanders had to describe the wail, they would’ve described it as an angel screaming for mercy. For the gods to forgive them for what sin they’ve committed. An anguished cry, one that pains the ears and tears into one’s soul before eventually crumbling to their demise. No, it wasn’t like the ones you would hear on the television when the protagonist’s lover leaves them. This was the cry of one who lost the better half of themselves, the cry of one who had everything ripped from their bare hands just when they thought they had everything they needed in the form of another person. 

When he was alive, Koutarou brought life and energy to everything he did. When the life slowly drained out of him, he couldn’t even leave without a bang. 

Koutarou left, but he left a crater the size of a shattered heart in Keiji’s soul in return. 

Keiji returns back to the skies without a word. He doesn’t bother attending Koutarou’s funeral. The other gods don’t offer condolences, but their pitiful expressions are enough to him. He goes back to doing his job of caring for the stars, and he doesn’t dare look towards Earth. 

He’s going through his ancient texts when a piece of paper falls out of one of them and slowly drifts to the ground. 

When Keiji picks it up, his heart clenches painfully and he can feel tears forming in his eyes.

It’s a faded polaroid picture of him at one of their many sleepovers. He’s staring fondly at the stars and his fingers are pointed towards the skies. Koutarou’s jacket covers his body and he’s grinning at something. A joke that Koutarou made, perhaps?

Keiji stares at it for a few seconds before flipping it over.

There are a few words hastily scribbled down, in chicken-scratch handwriting that Keiji can recognise by heart.

_ Keiji! Your smile is really pretty! Let’s go see the stars again next time!  _

_ -Koutarou _

Koutarou was a star. He left behind trails of stardust wherever he went. (He went out like a star. A stellar explosion that truly resembled him. A beautiful lightshow of galaxies. A supernova.)

The world continues spinning, but for a particular goddess of stars, it stills. 

It is (as it always will be) the unfortunate fate of star-crossed lovers. 

_______________________________

_ Act 5: Rebirth of a star _

Seasons past. The sun rises and falls. Humans, with their short memories and lifespan, often forget.

Gods are not an exception. Many new gods are created overtime, and many gods fade away too.

Or at least, that’s what Akaashi’s book is saying. Some book that he picked up a while ago about “Gods and Mythology: 101 facts!” He shuts the book and sighs as he stares boredly at the families cluttering the park from his corner under the small tree. Kids are noisily chasing and shouting at each other, making him wish that he had bought his headphones. Adults stare fondly after their kids, calling out to them whenever they run too far. 

There’s supposed to be a visible passing comet that night, and much to Akaashi’s chagrin, it seems as if he won’t get the peace he’s been hoping for. As he tilts his head to observe the terrestrial night sky, a pang of nostalgia strikes him. 

Ever since he was young, he’s always felt connected to the stars. The distant, silver sparkles that always seem to attract him towards them. They dazzle and glimmer in the night sky and it reminds Akaashi of home. 

On some days, they make him feel a weird sense of forlornness. As if he had lost something a long, long time ago, and he can’t seem to figure out what it is he lost. Something important to him, maybe? He can’t tell. 

He dreams that he’s a goddess of stars. He makes the stars and distributes them around Earth, he makes sure they retain their beauty even after decades and centuries. He crafts every one of them with his soul and loves them dearly.

He dreams about a past where he spends his days with a boy with weirdly-dyed hair and tattered volleyballs. A past where they spend their time sleeping under the open night sky, where they murmur secrets to each other in the dark. He always walks beside the boy, hands brushing against each other as they make their way to the large, open field with birds that sang lullabies for them. The rusty but sturdy volleyball net that waits patiently for their arrival everyday. 

Everytime he tries to sneak a look at the boy, his body twitches awake and he ends up feeling disappointed and melancholic. 

Eventually, he decides to just savour the days (nights?) he spends with the boy in the dreams. 

Akaashi cracks his neck as he checks the time on his phone. After waiting for 30 minutes, the comet is supposedly appearing in 5 more minutes. He shuts off his phone and he feels his head drooping downwards as he fights against his drowsiness. 

He’s really starting to get old. 

His head perks up when he feels someone tapping on his shoulder. 

“Hi there! Is this area free?” Akaashi glances warily at the stranger. 

The stranger’s a beefy man with salt-and-pepper hair (he feels something nagging at him from the back of his brain) and owl-like features. His sharp amber eyes are bright in the middle of the dark despite the fact that the only light available was the light reflecting off the moon. 

Akaashi nods his head hesitantly and the man’s expression lightens. “Thanks! I didn’t want to sit with the kids! They’re really noisy” He scrunches his nose and settles down beside Akaashi. 

Akaashi feels bells going off in his head as he combs through his memory for any recognition. Nothing, nothing, nothing. 

“Do I know you from somewhere?” Akaashi asks with a hint of desperation.

The man furrows his eyebrows. “I feel like I know you...” He mutters under his breath.

He suddenly gasps and turns to face Akaashi. “Keiji?” The man asks. 

Waves of memories hit Akaashi as he remembers scene after scene from a past long-forgotten. Memories of a large field, of a small shrine that took too many flights of stairs to reach, of the bare winters and scarves and jackets that were given to him. He remembers an accident, and then, a faded photograph that was taken by someone that he loved (or perhaps, loves). 

“Koutarou?” he whispers softly as he feels something wet hitting his cheeks.

A burst of light appears in the night sky as the families around them start pointing and gasping in awe. 

“I missed you.” Akaashi chokes out as the comet shoots across the night sky. Kids yell at one another, shaking each other as they point and jump and their eyes are filled with amazement.

Bokuto gives a small smile as he lightly touches Akaashi’s face. “I missed you too, Keiji.” 

“You always did everything so dramatically.” Akaashi says through his tears.

Bokuto grabs Akaashi and pulls him into a tight embrace. He stills for a moment before letting out a sob and grabbing onto Bokuto’s shirt. 

He finally has the stars in his arms again. 

end.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for day 8 of bokuaka week 2020: Mythology AU !! 
> 
> Special thanks to [Jamo](https://twitter.com/marmaladerolle) and [Moni](https://twitter.com/kvmamin) for beta-ing and listening to me word vomit!! i love yall sm <3
> 
> and yes come find me on [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/kousakk)


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